Allahabad HC cites long trial, lets off offenders, SC slams ‘misplaced sympathy’

NEW DELHI: A “gracious” trial court and a “very indulgent” Allahabad HC paved the way for two offenders in a grievous hurt case to go scotfree without spending a day in jail on the grounds that they suffered because of a 22-year-long trial, but the courts did not consider the victim, who is still getting treatment, Supreme Court has said.Now, SC has directed the accused in the 2003 case to surrender and asked the HC to conduct a fresh hearing.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran said it was a case of misplaced sympathy. The trial court had awarded fiveyear jail terms to the two, but the HC released them on probation. SC said the case was “doomed from its inception insofar as justice delivery to the victim is concerned”.“We cannot but, with an amount of consternation, notice the casual manner in which the trial court and the high court considered the issue from the stage of taking cognisance till the release of the accused on application of Probation of Offenders Act. They have gone scot-free without suffering a single day of imprisonment, especially by reason of the misplaced sympathy based on grandiose expositions of law,” it said.The court passed the order on an appeal filed by the brother of the victim, who has lost substantial functionality of both upper limbs.SC said the HC “went overboard” and wondered how it could pass such an order despite the adverse report on the character of the offenders, noting that theywere involved in multiple criminal cases. “True, protracted trial is agonising but here, the accused were on bail and merrily indulging in criminal activities,” the bench said. Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.